Monday, November 7, 2011

With 1 more day left to Asia's biggest paintball event, World Cup Asia... many are ready to enjoy themselves in the island of Langkawi playing paintball and making more friends from the game they love. As many embark on this journey to experience the best of Asia, many more remain rooted in Singapore only to envy those who make the trip. The question remains... what lies in our future? I am urging those who are making the journey to think and reflect about how paintball in Malaysia has grown over the years to where they are today. Do take note that all that what you are about to witness do not happen overnight and yet it only took Malaysians less than 8 years to achieve. So where are we now? With marker ownership regulation lifted recently, the ball is now in your court to implement the changes we have always wanted. You can now contribute to the growth of paintball in Singapore! We have open the gate for many great opportunities, the future lies in your hands. No more complains about centre line as we have clear that, no more complains about playing only at licenced premise as we have clear that, no more complains about marker ownership as we have clear that too... what else? The future lies in your hands...

If you are a registered SPLAT player, you have 7 days to let us know if you would like to purchase a 2nd hand ETEK3 AM at only SGD$499.00. Possession licence not included. First 10 buyers will get free storage at Red Dynasty Paintball Park for 1 year worth $160.50. Do your maths! No other hidden cost! Send an email to sales@paintballersworld.com

Greetings my fellow Paintballers, It is indeed with great pleasure for me to make this announcement to the local paintball community which may possibly revolutionize or create possible future changes and opportunities to the way paintball sport is being played in Singapore.

We have just concluded the Singapore Paintball Series (SPS) 2011 in October with the highest showing of 38 local and overseas teams. This result would not have been possible if not for the staunch support that is given by the local paintball community. A flourishing paintball tournament can only be regarded as successful with a good turnout and likewise a good turnout will need a professionally run tournament to bring out the best of any paintballer. As an avid paintballer myself, I do understand the continuous commitment and effort that one has to sacrifice in order to upkeep a dedicated paintball team. Forming a team to play paintball is the easiest part; the hardest part in competitive paintball is keeping the team together. The cost of training and expenses that are involved in this sport have punctured holes in our limited budget in these uncertain times. As a result, teams do not train as often as they would like to and players are unsure about how they can contribute to make this sport grow in Singapore. With 13 local based teams participating in next week’s World Cup Asia tournament as compared to a few years ago when there were only one, Singapore paintball has seen tremendous growth in recent years. As Singapore’s premiere paintball event, the SPS is committed to the continuous growth of this sport in Singapore and will devote our limitless effort in creating awareness and publicity for the game we all love. In our effort to develop the sport, the SPS committee will be implementing several changes to SPS. These changes have been stoutly proposed, debated and reviewed where the final objective is to allow Singapore paintball to progress to the next level where we can benchmark our playing standards to our overseas counterparts. I am extremely thrilled to announce the following changes to SPS 2012 and would like to seek your incessant support in our new implementation:

a) With immediate effect, SPS Tertiary Division will ceased to continue and will not be included in future SPS events. Students from tertiary institutions can look forward to the Inter-Tertiary Paintball Championship (ITPC) which will be organized as a competition series in 2012.

b) Renaming of divisional category will be introduced to allow for wider classification of skill set level. SPS 2012 will see the renaming of Novice Division to Division 4 and Open Division to Division 3 classification similar to Paintball Asia League Series (PALS) classification. A new category catering to Division 2 and Division 1 teams will be introduced and named as the Open Division.

c) Along with the renaming of divisional category will be the introduction of a SPS pilot initiative to better classify all SPS registered players into their respective playing category. This is to allow players to be better classified according to their playing experiences in all paintball events organized by the SPS.

d) The newly introduced Division 3 and Open Division will adopt the Race-to-2 and Race-to-3 format respectively. Division 3 teams can roster up to 8 players and Division 2 teams can roster up to 10 players. Format for Division 4 (Novice Division) remains unchanged.

e) With the introduction of individual marker possession in October 2012, the SPS will cease to provide the use of electronic paintball markers to all teams participating in Division 3 and above. With this implementation, the SPS is taking a leap into standardizing the way paintball should be played across the world where participants have legal ownership to their paintball equipment. Rental of electronic paintball markers can be pre-arranged with additional rental charges from SPS.

f) Participants of the SPS Corporate Division can now have the option to use an additional 2 pods of paintballs on top of the 100 paintballs which will be allocated for each game.

g) To allow the SPS to better facilitate the smooth running of the event and to provide adequate game participation for teams, the following team participation ratio will be adopted as a guide in participation numbers, Open Division:Division 3:Division 4:Corporate Division – 8:8:16:8. However, this ratio might be subjected to change depending on the number of participating teams and number of allocated fields during the event.

h) In the event where a player’s ID tag is confiscated from a player by the head referee due to game infringement, the affected player will not be able to participate in the remaining games of the tournament. At this juncture, the affected player will not be allowed in/near the tournament area not limiting to the paintball fields, the players’ area and the technical area until his charges are cleared by the tournament director and the head referee.

i) A disciplinary panel will be set up for each event to oversee the management of errant players. We hope that with these changes and implementation, we will be able to bring Singapore paintball to greater heights and to allow teams to prepare for a very exciting year ahead. As we approach year 2012, we would like to thank you for your contribution to the progress of Singapore paintball, for without your display of passion and dedication to the game, we will not be able to reach higher achievement for this sport.